[HPforGrownups] Very good discussion question

[Jennifer Boggess Ramon]

No: HPFGUIDX 32353

At 5:29 AM +0000 12/29/01, marybear82 wrote:
>I
>was surfing around the net, looking for my next hp fix, and discovered
>a set of discussion questions on Scholastic's hp website. They were
>written by Asst. Prof. Kylene Beers, a middle school reading
>specialist from the University of Houston.

OMG!  Could you give me the address, _please_?!  Dr. Beers was my 
Methods/English professor when I was getting my certification!

>"In The GoF, we learn that when V killed Harry's parents, Harry
>survived the attack due to his mother's loving sacrifice.  V explains
>that in 'His mother died in the attempt to save him - and unwittingly
>provided him with a protection I had not forseen...I could not touch
>the boy (p652). As a result of surviving that attack, Harry is labeled
>a great wizard, but has Harry truly earned that title?  To what extent
>would you say that Harry is not so much 'great' as lucky?  In all that
>Harry does, how much is he acting of his own free will, and how much
>is he simply living out what from birth has been his destiny?"

Great question (did I already say Dr. Beers was cool?).  In fact, in 
a big way, I think that's one of the central questions of the series 
- not just for Harry, but for almost all of the major characters. 
What are you born to, and what do you choose to do?  Dumbledore, of 
course, has already cast his vote - "It is our choices . . . that 
show what we truly are."  One could argue that being a DE was Snape's 
destiny, and he chose to escape it, if late.

IMHO, Harry seems to be manipulated by other people into doing most 
of his "destined" things - Mr. Ollivander and the wand, Dumbledore 
and the Mirror of Erised (among others), Crouch/Moody and the GoF. 
The things that show us who Harry is as a person, though, he chooses 
- Neville and Draco and the Remembrall, summoning Fawkes in the CoS, 
sharing the Triwizard Tournament cup with Cedric (to both of their 
chagrins).

>Cool to
>get an objective viewpoint from Prof. Beers, since I am anything but
>objective about these characters.

I'm not sure Dr. Beers is exactly objective when it comes to Harry 
Potter; she clearly though he was the greatest thing to happen to 
middle school readers since the printing press when I took her class. 
:)

-- 
  - Boggles, aka J. C. B. Ramon			boggles at earthlink.net
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